Truth Test: Is the Trans-Texas Corridor really dead?

Politifact Texas, a joint venture between the Austin American-Statesman and Politifact.com, has taken on the task of truth-testing statements by Texas politicians and political candidates. We will occasionally provide links to their analyses of what is fact and what is fiction here on the Texas Politics blog.

Eight years after Gov. Rick Perry proudly introduced his plan for the future of transportation in Texas, his campaign declared that vision null and void in a blog post during the Republican gubernatorial debate Thursday night.

“The Trans-Texas Corridor is dead,” said the post, which was entered at 7:26 p.m.

The TTC — unveiled in January 2002 as an approximately $200 billion plan for 4,000 miles of toll roads, rail lines and utility lines criss-crossing Texas in bundles — has become an issue in the GOP primary contest between Perry, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina, a businesswoman from Wharton. Hutchison has released online ads alleging that the controversial initiative, which drew the wrath of Perry opponents and some allies, is alive and well. One of the most vocal critics of the corridor idea was the Texas Farm Bureau, because it would have required the state to acquire a considerable amount of farmland.

We decided to investigate the health of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The Texas Department of Transportation pronounced the TTC dead, in concept and in name, in January 2009. But some remnants of the project are still on the books.”